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The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges.

The conditions of prisons for women are usually elusive to the public eye. The shorter lines on visiting days compared to men’s facilities tell stories of abandonment, distance from home, and broken families. The voices of little children living with their mothers, exposed to the harsh realities of prison life, resonate in a system that is supposed to punish only those who have committed a crime.

The voices of little children living with their mothers, exposed to the harsh realities of prison life, resonate in a system that is supposed to punish only those who have committed a crime.

As deputy minister of Justice in Colombia, in charge of the criminal policy, I visited dozens of prisons and witnessed how the prison system deprives people -especially women, from much more than their liberty. I confronted many obstacles to foster new opportunities in these facilities in a context in which crime was always open for applications. I tried to assist pregnant women anxiously waiting to hear from judges, hoping to get a permission to give birth in a hospital instead of the prison nursery — a place where every light fades. Incarcerated women told me that their male partners in crime (and often also in love) received lenient penalties for the same offenses they committed.

Most of the prison population worldwide are men; 6.4 % of the 10.8 million inmates, as of 2022, are women[1]. The region with highest share of incarcerated female population is the Americas where the number surmounts 7.3 %[2].

There is a disproportionate growth worldwide in the rate of female incarceration of nearly 60% compared to the 22% rise of male prison population between 2000 and 2022[3]. More than 740,000 women are incarcerated[4], and the US occupies the first place with around 190,600 women incarcerated[5].

The increase of the global female prison population can be attributed to the war on drugs: more than 50,000 women are incarcerated for drug-related crimes, not precisely for being drug lords. It is also linked to disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions: most of women come from impoverished contexts and over 62% of imprisoned women in state prisons are mothers to children under 18[6]. There are, too, mental health problems and drug use disorders; histories of harm and abuse including domestic violence and sexual abuse; and systemic biases within criminal justice systems.

Prison time does not improve any of these conditions. On the contrary, it often deepens the systemic burdens exacerbating the vulnerabilities that women face and creates new disadvantages that may surpass their time in the system. There are several additional adverse institutional consequences that often are obfuscated exceeding the criminal law framework – for instance, criminal records can impede obtaining an occupational license necessary to apply for qualified jobs, constraints on renting a place or accessing to subventions.

There are further adverse social effects like obstacles for recovering their children placed in foster care, being accepted in their communities or restoring their family relations.

These issues need to be addressed through policies of economic development addressing the vulnerabilities that certain women deal with and that may induce them to commit crimes.

These issues need to be addressed through policies of economic development addressing the vulnerabilities that certain women deal with and that may induce them to commit crimes, like appropriate healthcare for those women that commit offenses affected by mental problems or drug use disorders; mechanisms of redress for violence against women with a differential focus including strategies of prevention, attention and restoration aiming at breaking cycles of violence and discrimination; alternatives to punishment as the public service law that was enacted in Colombia allowing women to substitute prison time for social work with a restorative focus and diversion from incarceration; and establishing independent oversight of prisons increasing transparency of the system with integral programs focused on reintegration.

If societies grow more aware of what prisons represent for women, there might be a chance to work together for a more humane system and for a more coherent framework for accountability authentically addressing reparation for victims, rehabilitation of offenders and restoration of communities affected by crime. 

 Camilo Umaña,  Carr Center Fellow